1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to performing surveys and more particularly to survey communications across a network, such as the Internet/World-Wide-Web.
2. Description of the Background Art
Prior art systems and methods exist to perform surveys over a computer network, but such systems and methods provide limited capabilities in survey questioning and analysis. Many computer companies developed purely e-mail-based survey, distribution and analysis utility programs which were deployed during the time that computer networking was a relatively new technology before the World-Wide-Web (Web) gained popularity.
Prior art survey utility programs usually allow a designer to create a survey comprised of limited question types, such as multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, rating scale (with a maximum of two-dimensions), essay-type and ranking choice. Prior art surveys can be mailed to list of recipients, who can usually activate an attachment in their e-mail program, which brings up a client program that displays the survey. After responding to the survey, the survey takers send the responses to the e-mail box of the designer. The prior art usually analyzes the responses and looks for a proprietary tag, which identifies the survey and the response data, collates them and summarizes the responses. However, the prior art suffers from a number of limitations.
The prior art usually requires a client program to be launched from every survey respondent""s desktop in order to display the survey and enable the respondent to reply. This is fine in a networked environment where every computer desktop has access to a server upon which the client program resides, but it can only work if every single potential respondent has had the client program distributed to their desktop. The prior art does not take advantage of the fact the Web browser has become a de facto xe2x80x9cuniversal clientxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94it is ubiquitous on peoples"" desktops.
Another limitation of the prior art is that it is tied to proprietary operating system environments.
Another limitation of the prior art is that it is usually tied to a proprietary windowing system environment.
Another limitation of the prior art is that it is not linked to a Web server or Web browser in any way. It cannot be associated with the Web, if required to make the survey distribution more targeted or more like a broadcast.
Another limitation of the prior art is that it has no capability of associating, delivering or receiving multimedia objects such as video clips, audio clips and images to or from survey recipients.
Another limitation of the prior art is that it has limited analysis capabilityxe2x80x94only summary reporting for most question types and second order cross-tabulation for rating questions. The prior art cannot support summary tabulation and nth order cross-tabulation with associated graphical display of two or more variables.
Another limitation of the prior art is that is has no interface to databases or existing survey packages. The prior art does not tie in to Object-Relational Databases.
Another limitation of the prior art is that it supports only limited types of questions, and even in the common types of questions supported, it has limited flexibility in adding choice types. Many more question types with the ability to mix-and-match choice types between the base question types are not supported by the prior art.
Another limitation of the prior art is that it does not support xe2x80x9cintelligentxe2x80x9d survey behavior such as branching or piping. The prior art does not support a survey programming language called xe2x80x9cSurvey Intermediate Formxe2x80x9d which uses common programming language constructs such as macro expansion, conditional and unconditional branching, iterative loops, procedure calls and so forth.
Another limitation of the prior art is that it works only with proprietary e-mail programs. It does not support Internet mail standards such as MIME.
A practical survey network system should provide high-capability in gathering of information across a network. Therefore, what is needed is a high-capability system for performing survey communications across a network.
One object of the invention is to allow the display of the survey and the response to the survey without requiring a client program to be distributed to and launched from every survey respondent""s desktop.
Another object of the invention is to link the survey system to a Web server or Web browser, so that it can be associated with the Web, or it can be unlinked from the Web if required, to make the survey distribution more targeted or more broadcast-like.
Another object is to provide a capability to operate independently of proprietary operating system environments and proprietary windowing environments.
Another object is to provide the capability of associating, delivering or receiving multimedia objects such as video clips, audio clips and images to or from survey recipients.
Another object is to provide greater analysis capability for most question types, such as supporting summary tabulation and nth order cross-tabulation with associated graphical display of two or more variables.
Another object is to provide an interface to databases or existing survey packages and tie in to Object-Relational Databases.
Another object is to provide support for more types of questions, with more flexibility in adding choice types and to allow many more question types with the ability to mix-and-match choice types between the base question types.
Another object is to provide support for xe2x80x9cintelligentxe2x80x9d survey behavior such as branching or piping and to provide support for survey programming languages using common programming language constructs such as macro expansion, conditional and unconditional branching, iterative loops and procedure calls.
Another object is to support Internet mail standards such as MIME.
The present invention comprises a survey network system for performing surveys across a communications network including a computer network, a questionnaire server, a client and a response processor. The questionnaire server includes a communication interface, a questionnaire library, a questionnaire designer and a questionnaire distributor. The client includes a communication interface, a browser, a response engine and a local dedicated profile. The response processor includes a communication interface, an analysis engine and a prior response database. This provides a high-capability survey network system.